NOTE: If a performance is sold out, we have reached capacity for advance reservations. However, 20 tickets will be available on a first come, first served basis at the theater starting one hour before each performance for both shows. Please contact us if you have any questions.
Based on the real experiences of a San Diego native, Safa is an effervescent African American fifth grader with a big imagination and an even bigger heart. Through storytelling and music inspired by Safa's bicultural, American and Zimbabwean background, audiences meet her caring mother, kind teacher, and irresistible friends — as well as a new classmate who creates deepening divides between Safa and her peers. Designed to allow young people to consider the complexities of racism, difference, and prejudice, Safa's Story initially ends in heartbreak before audiences embark on an empowering journey to alter the outcomes of the play itself.
Created by local artist and activist Catherine Hanna Schrock, the show is based on Augusto Boal's model of Forum Theater. A genre of performance rarely seen in San Diego, Forum Theater was developed so that audiences might explore tangible ways to change the world in which we live. During the show, audiences are challenged to find new ways of supporting and empowering the central characters, encouraging young people to act on behalf of themselves or their peers when they experience injustice. This timely and ultimately hopeful play offers children and families an opportunity to navigate this difficult but important conversation during a time of increasing division and discord.
Safa's Story was developed for family audiences in partnership with Bocón Arts and is recommended for ages 6 and up.